A New Freedom
by Sinopa
Summary: What if in the season finale Buffy and all the others died? And just like whenever Buffy dies she awakes in a safe, white room. Will she be able to move on and leave behind Buffy for the new Elizabeth, and hold on to her new freedom?
1. Time To Awake Revised

**A New Freedom**

**Disclaimer:** The characters and the idea for the plot do not belong to me, no matter how much I wish they did. 

This is the introduction to 'A new Freedom' a story about Buffy in a 'what if' fashion. Such as what if in the last episode, Buffy and all of her friends died and instead of death it was back to the white room in which she had awoken once after dieing at the end of 5th season and one episode in 6th season. When I say that she woke up at the end of 5th season in the same place, the Insane Institute, that she woke up in 6th season, it is because Buffy described her heaven as a bright white room that was quite, and the Doctor said that she had woken once before but had left for her friends.

**Chapter One: **Time To Awake, _Revised_

**Buffy watched as all of her potentials** **fell to the ground one by one, either Willow's spell wasn't working or it wasn't working fast enough. She gasped as Faith fell to the dirt with one last warrior scream and then fell silent. She felt a pull at her heartstrings and knew that one of the four had died. The four being the originals in her group, the Scooby gang, the four meaning that Giles, Willow, or Xander was dead. She kicked out at an ubervamp and silently prayed it hadn't been Willow, without her they were all dead. This time as her heart was wrenched a tear trickled down her cheek. Dawn was gone. She looked around and found that Spike had stopped fighting and was standing with the necklace trying to get it to work, she screamed as a ubervamp twisted Spikes neck. She was alone now, the spell hadn't come through. She fell to the ground as a blade went through her body with a quick swipe. The first stood in front of her taunting. She tried pushing up, but couldn't because there was much pain. She was alone, everyone else was gone, and she let every thing go black.   
**

Hazel eyes fluttered a couple times then opened. Blinding white lights blurred her vision and her eyes closed once again. Her hand went to her other were she could feel the IV and she pulled it out. What wouldn't have even caused her to flinch now caused her eyes to tear up uncontrollably. The lights in the room dimmed to a shadow color and she found that it didn't hurt to open her eyes. She sat up in the bed, the white bed.

"Where am I?" She asked the empty room, not even realizing that she had spoken out loud. Her voice was somehow soothing to hear, but her lips and jaw hurt as she spoke as if she hadn't said a word in years. 

"This, Elizabeth Summers, is a hospital. You're in here because you were making up stories that couldn't be real." An African American man said walking into the room with a large needle. She flinched and yelled out as he injected the medication into her arm. "Did you leave you're friends behind? Are you ready to stay with us here Miss Summers?" He asked her as he pulled out a flash light and shined it in her left eye, followed by her right. She closed them trying to block out the light.

"I re-remember you...You were here when the trio poisoned me..." Buffy could barely form the words on her mouth.

"I see you still have you're stories..." The doctor frowned unhappily.

"My-I-They're all dead. Dawn, and Willow, and Xander...Oh, God Giles..." Tears started streaming down the blondes face. Her hair was thin and limp from lack of sunlight and care. Her skin was pasty white and her hazel eyes that once held fire and life were dull and puffy from crying.

"Those people aren't real Miss Summers." The doctor started sternly. "And you couldn't possibly be dead, you're hearts beating and you're here now. Am I right?" He was examining her closely as if her eyes would get cloudy and her head would fall back against the pillow. "Are you going to stay with us Miss Summers? Because I don't want to call you're parents and have you leave us again."

She looked up at him, tears still coming. "I can't go back there." She pleaded. "I'm alone there, I can't go back." She shook her head trying to get Faiths dead body out of her mind's eye.

"Good, I'm going to go call you're parents and tell them your awake then. Nurse Lilah will be in shortly with some good old hospital food and some apple juice for you." The Doctor smiled and walked out of the room. Buffy sat up in her bed and let her feet dangle over the side. She stepped out with one foot, then the other, holding onto the bed for support. She tried taking a step without the beds help and fell to her hands and knees, her legs weak from not being used. 

"Miss Summers! What on heavens name are you doing out of you're bed!" The young nurse walked over and held Buffy's arm, helping her back into the white bed. She went back to the door and picked up a tray with Jell-O and mashed potatoes bringing it back to Buffy's bedside table and pulling an _Apple Juice_ juice box out of her matron pocket. "There you go kid, here's your Spork." She handed Buffy the plastic Spork and smiled. "A little sun and fresh air and you'll be good as new." The nurse went to walk out to leave Buffy with her food. Buffy closed her eyes and saw the bodies of all the girls she had help take to their grave and pushed her food away, suddenly she wasn't hungry.

The doctor and nurses were in a staff room talking about the patients.

"Amazing really how all of em' woke on the very same day...Ain't ever seen nothing of the sort." A large woman was saying while stirring her coffee, shaking her head as if the whole ordeal was insane.

"I know what you mean Kathy. It's unbelievable, starting with that Summers kid and the rest of them wake up. It's unreal." The doctor started rubbing his temples.

"The weird part is that she used to scream out their names when she was havin' one o' them skyrocketing dreams of hers. I think she's a witch that one. Put um' all under some curse she did."

"Oh that's just a load of..." His sentence was cut off as a couple walked into the waiting area out side the staff room. The woman had short curly blond hair and a kind face that would look young if not for the worry and stress wrinkles that had arrived through years of waiting for her daughter. The man was tall and sturdy with dark hair that was receding and grey spots every once and a while. 

"Mr. and Mrs. Summers! Right this way." The doctor stood up and went to lead them to Buffy's room. "I think she may be staying with us this time." He whispered as they neared Buffy's door. The woman's eyes were brimming with tears as she looked at the sleeping blond on the snow white bed.

"Your sure she's…she's awake and with us doctor?" Joyce asked wiping the tears out of her eyes. The doctor nodded a 'yes' and walked to the bed.

"Miss Summers, your parents are here to see you..." Buffy's eyes opened slowly readjusting to the light in the room. She looked around, and in seeing her parents, fresh tears started streaming down her face.

"Mom? Dad?" Both of them ran over to see their daughter who embraced them in a strong hug. "I'm so-so sorry..." Buffy was cradled in her parent's arms. A sudden feeling of anguish swept over her. Dawn would never have this, or Willow, or Xander, or even Giles. They were all dead...Right? Was she dead? Was this heaven or really an Insane Hospital...It was all so confusing.


	2. School, Again? Revised

**A New Freedom**

**Chapter Two:** School, Again? _Revised_

School. Oh god how long had it been? She hadn't been to high school in what? Four years? Not counting picking up Dawn, and actually working for the school, that hadn't been the original Sunny Dale High. She flinched- Dawn, her little baby sister that never was. And what would become of Buffy now? Now that she didn't have her powers? Did things still go bump in the night? Even with out her as slayer? 

"You don't have to go to school today if you don't want to." Buffy's mother's voice cut through her thoughts. She would be starting her first day at Sunny Dale high school, again. At first she thought she would be going to her old school- but the whole 'catching the gym on fire' really had happened. She had imagined her self as a slayer and instead of saving peoples lives; she had been the monster to endanger them. They didn't want her back. Besides, her mother and father had moved here to get her better health care and the house was fixed up. It was just as she had remembered it.

"No, I want to go. I want to do better." Buffy turned to look at her mom. Joyce was still worried about her daughter. Elizabeth had an unnatural pallor about her. Her hair was thin from not enough light. There were bags under her eyes. But she insisted on moving on.

"Well have a great day sweetheart." Buffy nodded and stepped out of the car. The sight that greeted her made her choke back a sob. It was Sunny dale. With cheerleaders on the lawn jumping around, the jocks watching with smirks, 'nerds' sitting on the benches talking. It was the school before it was destroyed by the mayor.

"Get the bloody hell of my back." An English accent drawled with venom. Buffy's head turned sharply to see a blond teen, maybe a couple years older then her, arguing with a guy with spiked raven hair. Angel and Spike. Buffy thought to her self. Then she wasn't the only one here, but they were vampires- and this was the middle of the day.

Things didn't go bump in the night, the world would live and she wasn't its protector. Their were bigger things to worry about now, littering and whose going to be the president of the United States. It felt as though a huge weight had been lifted, she could breathe freely. But was she the only one who could remember? Did they know who she was? What about- Oh god Xander, and Willow, did they make it? Who was the librarian, or their principal?

"Buffy?" She turned around again to see, Anya.

"Anya?" Buffy asked, more of a whisper, a whoosh of air being released. She hadn't even realized she hadn't been breathing.

"Actually, I'm Annie. I'm supposed to show you around. Close though." Annie was studying Buffy as though Buffy had sprouted another head. "Have I met you before? You look so familiar..." Buffy shook her head sadly.

"How did you know my name?" She asked with suspicion.

"Your necklace, it says Buffy. Besides Principal Flutie gave me your description and all."

"Oh. Am I supposed to go see him or something?" Buffy asked her thoughts shifting to said Principal. She remembered what had happened to him. She had felt bad, angry that she hadn't made it in time- she knew Xander had felt worse. He had been apart of it.

"You there?" Anya- Annie was waving a hand in front of her face. Buffy blinked.

"Oh yeah- sorry."

"Good. Office is this way." Annie started walking towards the school, not looking behind her to even make sure Buffy was following. But Buffy had stopped following. There was Cordeila, looking a little worse for wear- but she was with her old friends. And Willow was sitting on the bench talking to Xander, and another boy. One who looked familiar but Buffy just couldn't place. He had been important at one time- in the beginning. If she could just figure out his name maybe she could remember? But it wasn't as important as her two best friends; they were alive- even if they didn't remember her. She didn't bother to brush away the salty tears.

Xander had seen her; he was watching her with a peculiar expression. Willow's eyes were wide as though she had seen a ghost. Buffy wanted to hug them, never let go. She took a slow step towards them-

"Buffy, office-this way." Annie gently took her hand and pulled her into the school.

**TBC**


	3. Finding the Truth Revised

**Chapter Three**: Finding the Truth _Revised_

"Then you want me to call you Buffy?" The Principal looked down at his file, checking her name.

"No, Elizabeth is fine." Buffy corrected him. She wasn't Buffy anymore. Now she was real, she didn't have a job to do. She didn't have to fight anything but bad hair days, anymore. She could just vaguely remember those days where she had to fight. It all seemed like a long horrible dream.

"Alright Elizabeth, here's your new schedule. We've had quite a few new students enrolling as of late. I imagine you'll all get a long just fine. Perhaps you'll be introduced in one of your classes? Well, off you go. Annie will show you to your homeroom." The principal handed her a piece of paper with classes, class numbers. The odd thing was that Buffy knew where every class was, she didn't need Annie's help. But how could she know these classes, when she had slipped into her comma before ever venturing into Sunny Dale High School?

"Thank you." Buffy said before she shut the door behind her. Annie was waiting, her foot propped behind her against the wall her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Ready?" Annie asked, but she didn't wait for a reply, just looked at Buffy's class list and started walking in one direction. Buffy did notice a group of students under a tree in front of the campus and pointed them out.

"Those are the pot heads. I wouldn't hang out with them; you'll get a bad rep." Annie didn't look at the students, just kept walking with her face looking straight ahead. Buffy recognized some of the students. A girl in leather pants and a red halter top, with matching red lip-gloss and long flowing dark hair. A senior, with bleached hair and a leather jacket- Faith and Spike. But was that who they were now? Were any of Buffy's old friends the same people she had known in another world? Anya didn't know her. Maybe she had seen recognition on Xander's face, but maybe it had just been someone behind her, or a play of the light.

"You know what's weird?" Annie started, "Yesterday we had a bunch of kids start here too. Ya know?"

"Um. No, I don't know." Buffy answered.

"Well, it's a figure of speech." Annie looked at her funny. "Well there's your home class. Have fun." Annie pointed to a door on the left and then she kept walking. "Just tell the teacher your new, okay?" And then she had turned down a hallway and was gone.

Buffy opened the door to the class and stepped inside, her entrance was followed by the class going silent and the teacher halting in her lecture.

"_Another_ new student?" The teacher asked warily. "Or, you could make my day and tell me you're here for a piece of chalk."

"I'm here for a piece of chalk?" Buffy gave a smile, and the teacher breathed a sigh of relief. "But I also think this class is on my new schedule…"

"Well, at least you tried." The teacher pointed to an empty desk in the back of the room on the opposite side of the windows.

"Is she another one from the loony bin?" A boy questioned in a whisper, a pretty loud whisper.

"Mental Hospital. I heard she was the first one to wake up; they had to run test on her or something before she could be released. After she woke up, the other four woke up. And after them, even more. Some of them weren't even there because they were mental- the new librarian was put in that hospital after a car accident put him in a comma."

Elizabeth ducked her face and concentrated on the words in her text book, allowing her hair to hide her face. Blond hair, just like Buffy's used to be. Maybe her mom would take her to get it cut and styled after school. '_The other four woke up'_ those words rang in her head as the teacher went over Hamlet. There were four more, which she had awoken? _And then more after them_? She didn't understand.

The bell rang, she didn't hear it, but she saw everyone standing from their seats and grabbing their books, walking towards the door.

"Ms. Summers?" The teacher questioned from the front of the room. "Maybe I could help find a student to tutor you if you don't understand the material. I understand it must be hard for you to come to this school in the middle of term."

"Uh, no that's okay. Actually I've already read Hamlet. But thanks." Elizabeth gave a smile and walked out of the class. The teacher's raised eyebrow and mouth opened to question or comment the last thing she saw before the door shut behind her, ready to be reopened for the next class.

She looked at her class list. She had Arithmetic, Geometry next. That was right past the library if you took the quickest rout. Elizabeth paused for a moment, the other students talking amongst themselves or goofing off before they had to run to their next class. Elizabeth decided on the quickest rout. If Giles was in the library, than he was the Librarian. There was nothing special about it. Apart that she was fearful that she may brake down in tears and hug him.

As she came up on the library, nothing was out of order. Students walked in, they walked back out. She caught a glimpse of red hair as the door started to swing close. Willow's hair. Buffy was screaming for her to go inside, to start up conversation. To see if Willow remembered her at all, just the least bit of remembrance would make Buffy feel better. Buffy was a trouble maker. Elizabeth kept walking towards her Geometry class.

"I thought for sure she would come in to see us." Willow grumbled when she was sure Buffy had gone past the Library and to her class. "Unless she doesn't remember us?"

"No. That wouldn't make much sense would it?" Xander questioned. Giles shook his head.

"I agree with Willow's theory. After the apocalypse, Buffy woke up. Her memories of us were returned to us and we, in turn awoke." Giles restated what Willow had told him upon their return to Sunny Dale High. The first thing she had done was look for Xander and give him a huge hug. Then the two of them had made their way to the Library, sure that it would be where they found Giles. They had been correct.

The three had researched what had happened and put together a thesis. Of course, it was based mostly on their old lives being real, and this life being based on memories that had been returned only after the Slayer had reawaken to come live in this dimension. All the old supernatural fun.

Their idea based on Buffy awaking and giving back those she remembered best- Willow, Xander, Giles, and Cordelia (odd but true). Those four had in turn given back their memories of the people that they knew. But only the people they knew best- Faith, Wes, Fred, Oz, and so on.

The vampires and demons had all been here long before Buffy could have returned their memories. They had their own identities; they had been different people in the old dimension. Spike, Angel, Doyle, and Anya were all different people now, they _were_ people now. And they had been attending Sunny Dale before Buffy or any of the others had come back.

Cordelia had politely refused to join the Scooby gang again. She had made it onto the Cheerleading Squad with a story about living in New York for the past couple years. Her father was rich, but this time around she had warned him about the taxes so that she could save her money. Although even Cordelia had blanched and had to hold back threatening tears when she had seen the substitute teacher from Ireland.

And as for the previous semi-humans, they didn't know a thing about who they had once been. Annie didn't know that at one time she had loved Xander with all of her heart and had been a vengeance-demon turned mortal. Doyle didn't know he had fallen for Cordelia, and had a half demon heritage. Angel and Spike, still being mortal enemies as the head jock and punk kid, did not know that they had once held that same hatred as blood suckers and had both fallen in love with a Vampire Slayer with out a way to dig them selves back out.

So it was back to Xander, Willow, and Giles to bring Buffy back. Because even though they now lived in what seemed like a peaceful dimension, friends were not the only thing that Buffy had helped bring back. They just hadn't woken up yet.

**TBC**


	4. I Break the Back of Love for You

**A New Freedom**

_Post Blue_, **Placebo**

It's in the water baby, it's in the pills that bring you down  
It's in the water baby, it's in your bag of golden brown  
It's in the water baby, it's in your frequency  
It's in the water baby, it's between you and me

It's in the water baby, it's in the pills that pick you up  
It's in the water baby, it's in the special way we fuck  
It's in the water baby, it's in your family tree  
It's in the water baby, it's between you and me

Bite the hand that feeds  
Tap the vein that bleeds  
Down on my bended knees  
I break the back of love for you  
I break the back of love for you  
I break the back of love for you  
I break the back of love for you

It's in the water baby, it's in the pills that bring you down  
It's in the water baby, it's in your bag of golden brown  
It's in the water baby, it's in your frequency  
It's in the water baby, it's between you and me

Bite the hand that feeds  
Tap the vein that bleeds  
Down on my bended knees  
I break the back of love for you  
I break the back of love for you  
I break the back of love for you  
I break the back of love for you  
I break the back of love for you  
I break the back of love for you  
I break the back of love for you  
I break the back of love for you

**Chapter Four: **I Break the Back of Love for You

Elizabeth made her way to the parking lot after her last class, head bent over her books. She had quite a lot of homework to do and was vaguely annoyed at recognizing the assignments from her dream reality- assignments she hadn't done then because of time restraints, and her job as the slayer.

She had avoided the library at all cost during the day, to the point of not getting a book for an assignment and deciding to pick it up at the local book store before getting her hair done that afternoon.

"Buffy!"

She froze. Just stopped right there in the middle of a jammed parking lot as seniors and lower classmen attempted to escape the confines of school property in record breaking time. She froze because she knew that voice better than she knew her own mothers or fathers. That voice had been part of an illusion, something that wasn't, that couldn't have been real.

"Buffy. We've been looking for you…We thought you might have wanted to talk." Willow Rosenberg, Buffy's best friend. Behind her stood Xander, he had both of his lovely brown eyes. _They're alive!_ Buffy screamed out to Elizabeth. Elizabeth was watching them with wide eyes, fear.

"I- I can't. I have to go to the book store, get a hair cut." Elizabeth looked back to the parking lot, to her mom's car. Her mom was waiting patiently, happy to see her daughter talking with people her own age. She wouldn't be happy if she knew how much Buffy knew about these people her own age. Elizabeth backed away from her had-been friends, practically running for her mother's car.

"That didn't go so well… Did you see the look on her face?" Willow's heart was breaking.

"She's getting her haircut at a bookstore?" Xander watched as Mrs. Summers' car pulled out of the lot.

"Xander! Be serious. She looked at us like we were going to kill her." Willow pulled her books closer to her chest, the bag over her shoulder holding her new purchases from the local magic shop she had visited the day before. Purchases she had to keep hidden from her mother who was still very worried about Willow's previous comma, a comma that was caused from unknown reasons. Xander would be taking her magic items home with him.

"Come on Wills, it's Buffy. She'll come around. She came back from New York didn't she?" This was true, but Xander's attention was somewhere else. For being worried about Buffy (which he was), he looked after the girl Annie who in another life had been the women he loved.

It was killing him that she didn't remember. Which, she didn't as he had tried talking with her multiple times in the last two days.

Buffy's mom was pleased to take her to a beauty salon. She went to the book store to pick up a copy of Angela's Ashes for Buffy's history class while Buffy waited in the salons hard plastic chair flipping through magazines for the hair colour she would change to.

She had settled on a red-brown, and looked like foil was attempting to eat her skull, by the time her mother came back with the book and a chocolate bar. It still pained her to see how her mother had aged with worry, to think about her younger sister that didn't exist. Who hadn't really existed in her old reality.

"Elizabeth?" Buffy turned from her magazine to address the voice. Annie. _Anya_, Buffy insisted. "Can I…Talk to you for a minute? Alone?"

Mrs. Summers smiled and moved away to talk with the women who had foiled Elizabeth's hair about a perm for her own.

"Buffy, I- This is going to sound so odd…Or not. I remember you. I remember things, weird things. There's this overlapping, and I didn't remember things yesterday that today feel like they happened just yesterday. I remember Xander, and all these girls, a blonde boy about to be killed- I remember scary things Buffy, and you helped me."

Elizabeth was shaking. Buffy was rejoicing.

"Oz?" Willow looked to the red-head that was currently looking quite shocked (an odd expression coming from Oz) and standing in the door way to the library after school.

Willow had thought he had been ignoring her, after all- he hadn't been a werewolf his whole life, surely some of his memories would have been brought back. Some of his memories of her? But he hadn't so much as looked as though he had ever seen her before since she had started school again.

"Willow? Xander?" Oz fell to his knees, "I have a headache."

"They remember." Giles said wondrously, Willow was holding a cold towel to Oz's head and had given him three pain-killers. "The ones that were half-human are starting to remember things."

"It's been pretty weird the last few days, like I'm living a life while I'm sleeping. I wake up and I have these memories of people I don't remember knowing. Things that in all honesty couldn't happen. They're so real, not like dreams, but memories of another life.

"And it's happen to others. Annie came to me complaining of a migraine at lunch, she went to the nurse."

Xander thought of the principal and what would happen if he received all of his memories back, or had he already done so when he had first died in their dimension.

"Memories are overlapping, ours are taking over. Slowly." Buffy stepped into the library, Annie behind her. She looked different than the girl Willow had followed into the parking lot after school. Her hair was darker, healthier looking, and she had the familiar look of the slayer in her eyes- determined, unafraid, sure.

"The game has changed." She said finally.


	5. Bring It

**A New Freedom**

_Bring It (Snakes on a Plane),_ **Cobra Starship**

Samuel L. Jackson:  
"That's it!  
I have had it with these motherfucking snakes  
on this motherfucking plane!"

Times are strange  
We got a free upgrade for  
snakes on a plane.  
Fuck 'em, I don't care.  
Pop the cheap champagne,  
we're going down in flames, hey.

Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring it.  
Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring it.  
Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring it.  
Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring it.

So kiss me goodbye.  
Honey, I'm gonna make it out alive.  
So kiss me goodbye.  
I can see the venom in their eyes.  
Goodbye.

It's time to fly,  
to make the skies align  
with the serpentine  
lounging in their suits and ties.  
Watch the whores parade  
for the price of fame, hey.

Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring it.  
Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring it.  
Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring it.  
Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring it.

So kiss me goodbye.  
Honey I'm gonna make it out alive  
So kiss me goodbye.  
I can see the venom in their eyes

So kiss me goodbye.  
Honey, I'm gonna make it out alive  
So kiss me goodbye.  
I can see the venom in their eyes  
Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen  
These snakes are slitherin'  
with dollar signs in they eyes  
with tongues so reptilian  
This industry's venomous  
with cold-blooded sentiment  
No need for nervousness  
It's just a little turbulence.

So kiss me goodbye.  
Honey I'm gonna make it out alive  
So kiss me goodbye.  
I can see the venom in your eyes

So kiss me goodbye.  
Honey, I'm gonna make it out alive  
So kiss me goodbye.  
I can see the venom in their eyes  
Goodbye.

Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring it.  
Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring.  
Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring it.  
Oh, I'm ready for it  
Come on, bring it.

We seem to be losing altitude  
at an alarming pace  
Midtown downtown  
Snakes on a block  
I suggest you grab your ankles  
and kiss your ass goodbye.

**Chapter Five:** Bring It

Elizabeth was gone. It was as simple as that. As soon as she had awoken Buffy had started fighting for dominance in this body. The slayer had taken over, even without her slaying powers.

Her friends stood at her side; Willow and Xander friends as always, Giles her true father figure- the one she always remembered. Oz was in pain as his memories were coming back to him, the migraine and the memories of his werewolf form and anything he had ever done in that form sending him to his knees with Willow attempting to help him.

Anya had informed them that her memories were coming back in spurts. Centuries of memories as the demon and small glimpses at her life as a mortal after having her powers taken away.

Cordelia was still pretending that she didn't remember anything. That she was still normal, while everyone around her evolved into parts of their old selves, some with only an hour worth of memories and others with centuries coming in intervals.

Faith had not been far behind Buffy in meeting them in the library. Her smirk apparent and as familiar as her leather clothes.

"So what exactly is going on? I haven't gotten my powers back." Buffy looked to Giles.

"I'm just a girl now too. Gypped." Faith joked, sliding a hip onto the edge of the book check out counter.

"I'm not sure you'll be receiving your old powers. Just as I'm almost positive that Oz will not be turning back into a werewolf, or Spike and Angle back into vampires." Giles paused, turning and looking at the collection of books on the shelves. "The school isn't even quite like it was before, my books are not here. It's just as if everything is normal. As if the only thing that goes bump in the night is evil mortal men. The only vampires here belong to Ann Rice."

"There were other vampire authors." Willow pointed out from Oz's side.

"Yes, well of course. I just meant to say that they're fiction here."

"What you're really saying is we're unemployed. We are normal apart from knowing what happened in that other realm?" Buffy spoke up, looking at each one of her friends from another life. "I mean, technically, we are free?"

"Well, that's not to say that Vampires don't exist here. There are numerous realms. We could have just as easily intersected with our lives in the realm that Anya created when she granted Cordelia's wish." Giles removed his glasses to wipe the lenses on his shirt.

"Ew. That would have sucked." Xander pointed out.

"I created a what? When did I do that?" Annie looked confused, memories of Anya not yet reminding her of everything she had done through her long life.

"When you were still a demon…The first time." Willow helped."

"But there are still people missing." Buffy questioned. "What about Dawn?"

"She very well may not exist in this world at all. She wasn't born a mortal in our realm as it is." Giles spoke softly, knowing Buffy's and the rest of the group's attachment to the younger sister. "Other people may not have been here in this area at this time in this life.

"I do still think there's a reason we were sent here. Perhaps vampires are not what we're here to fight. There are other horrors that even _we _didn't have to worry about when we lived in Sunnydale."

"Horrors such as?" Buffy questioned. "I mean. We all spent a life time fighting horrors that people don't even know in this world. Horrors that people in this realm are only starting to remember. Largely due to what? The fact that I woke up and we still live over a damn Hellmouth?"

"It's hard to say, Buffy. I know as much about this world as you I'm afraid. The memories people are receiving themselves may very well put all of our lives in danger. If they remember everything, who they were, who we were, everything we did in that other life. All of their deaths."

"It could cause mass chaos." Willow shuddered.

"Bring it." Faith urged.

**TBC**


End file.
